And Then The Depression Happened
by Robina Snyder
Summary: Tiana finally has her restaurant, but a few years later the Great Depression happens. In order to save the restaurant she's saved for all her life Tiana and Naveen must visit his family in Maldonia before they will the couple the loan they need.
1. Chapter 1

And Then the Depression Happened, Chapter 1

It felt as odd sailing away from New Orleans as it felt sailing away from Maldonia. New Orleans had become his home. He hadn't been home in over five years. He'd just turned twenty when his parents kicked him out (in fact his 20th birthday had been a deciding factor in shipping him off) and he was nearly 26 now. He's seen his parents once or twice since his wedding, but he and Tiana had both been too busy with their restaurant to leave town, and his parents were the king and queen of a country, so it's not like they could go traipsing across the world whenever they felt like it.

The trip to Maldonia was going to be a long one. Maldonia was located in the Indian Ocean, part way between Saudia Arabia and India, though really it was closer to India. There was a clear line of Indian descent through his heritage. There was also a clear line of African and a clear line of European descent in his heritage. Their county wasn't huge like normal European countries, so they didn't have the luxury of turning down a political marriage when one presented itself.

Prince Naveen glanced over at his wife. They'd celebrated their five year anniversary recently, but still no children. Tiana's mother was starting to get antsy about it, but by the time the couple would have been ready to have children the depression hit.

They'd had a few good years. He and Tiana had fixed up the building pretty well, and between a small loan from the La Bouff's and large loan from his parents they had been able to fix up the restaurant to a high class place in under a year. Tiana had worked very hard to put together a menu that, while good enough that even the upper class like the La Bouff's would want to come eat there, it wasn't out of the price range of the other people Tiana knew. Her dream was a beautiful place with good food and food music that people from all walks of life could come eat at. Her menu and price reflected that.

It was her dream, but it made paying off the loans harder. They'd been able to pay off the loan to Big Daddy La Bouff, but the one to his parents was a whole different kettle of fish. Tiana had always been a saver, and it helped that Big Daddy La Bouff had started teaching Tiana about how money worked, the stock market, and so on (in the hopes that to teach one was to teach the other and that Lottie would pick up something from Tiana; and even if she didn't that Tiana would help Lottie once he died). Tiana and Eli La Bouff were the first to find out about the stock market, though both surprised the young Prince by leaving their money in the market ever after the crash.

Tiana's saving had saved them for the most part, but nearly three years into the depression and it was becoming harder to pay the bills. Employees needed to be paid, electricity, water, gas, and all the other things it took to make a restaurant work, combined with less people being able to afford to go out and eat as often. It'd been a hard decision for them, but it was either pack up and move to Maldonia for a year or lose everything.

Naveen had been suspicious when his parents showed up. They didn't show up very often, and there was no reason for their visit. They acted very impressed with Tiana's restaurant and her cooking, per normal, but after the talk about food settled down other matters came up. Maldonia was doing surprisingly well in the depression. Small or poor countries seemed to be less affected because they had less to lose. Maldonia was not a big island country. It was big enough though.

Eventually the topic came around to the loan taken out to pay for tables and chandeliers. Naveen had almost been afraid that they were going to call in the debt, but they hadn't done that, not exactly. They'd pointed out that it was only going to become harder for Tiana's Place to stay open, and offered the couple a choice. They could close up the business, still owning the property, and move to Maldonia for at least a year, and in that time not have to worry about paying for their loan, or they could continue on as they had before. It wasn't like there was much of a choice offered.

Naveen looked over at Tiana who'd come to stand at the rail next to him as they watched New Orleans move farther and farther out of view. "How did you ever get up the nerve to leave home Naveen?" Tiana asked, leaning against him some. He slipped his arm around his wife.

"I was young and exiled at the time; don't hold it against me too much. My parents were sending me off to go live my life far away from the palace so that I'd stop sleeping with every girl I came across and squandering funds . They gave me a choice and I picked New Orleans, the place where jazz came from," he said, rubbing her arm to be sure she was warm.

"Well that answered my next question," Tiana said.

"What does?" Naveen asked.

Tiana looked up Naveen and smiled. "I was going to ask why you picked to come to New Orleans when you could have gone anywhere else. New York had more heiresses, and you know how the south is with people of color. The La Bouff's are the exception, not the norm," she said, leaning against her husband. "I wondered why you'd picked New Orleans… but it turns out it was just the music."

"Well, that's not exactly true… I didn't really believe in racism at the time. New Orleans seemed like a fun place to go, so I went. I honestly didn't expect to stay there that long," the prince admitted.

"Even if you'd married Lottie?" Tiana asked.

"Even if I'd married Lottie," Naveen said, watching the city move completely out of sight.

"Are you going to miss it?" Tiana asked, watching the same thing. He didn't even have to ask what 'it' she was referring to.

"Are you?" He asked.

"Of course," Tiana said, shaking her head in slight exasperation. Naveen never changed.

"Then there's your answer," the prince said, leaning down and kissing Tiana's cheek. "Are you nervous?"

"Very… I've never been been outside of the state before… and now I'm traveling to the Indian ocean… this is just a big step for me," Tiana said, trying not to sound overwhelmed.

"It's a big step for everyone," Naveen pointed out. "And a huge trip… we better try and get some sleep before tomorrow shows up," he said, starting to lead his princess down to their room as the boat sailed for Maldonia.


	2. Chapter 2

And Then the Depression Happened, Chapter 2

Naveen found himself leaning against the rail of the ship once more, looking out at the ocean. He couldn't help but feel happy to be going home. If nothing else just to get off the damn boat. The boat trip was painfully long, especially since neither he nor Tiana were meant for boat travel. To be fair it wasn't a particularly easy trip. Naveen was more and more glad that they hadn't decided to take the Pacific route.

Maldonia was part way between India and Saudia Arabia, and independent island country with such a blended culture that it was hard to figure out exactly where one root culture started and another ended. The close proximity to India meant that they shared a lot of the same dress, culture, and customs. At the same time Maldonia had strong ties to Spain to the point that the main line of Maldonia Royalty actually descended from Spanish royalty. The Maldonia wealth came from many different sources. A lot of his family's personal wealth came from Naveen's mother who was the only surviving heir to a very old and wealthy family from the Middle East. Madonia owned a territory that the United States used for military purposes, and paid very handsomely for that use. There was also a certain amount of British trade through their waters. Maldonia was very small, but wealthy in its own way.

"So, tell me again about your country," Tiana said, walking up to the rail next to Naveen. They'd actually be docking in a few hours.

"It's beautiful. Everything's from everywhere else. We have ithe/i most beautiful religious buildings. There are mosques with gorgeous minarets; and large catholic cathedrals, and even a few regular churches. The palace is from everywhere too. A lot of the design was borrow from India and from Spain. You'll be blown away by it my Evangeline," Naveen said. He didn't normally associate architecture with his country first, but he's already raved about the food, the people, the plants, the clothes. He was simply running out of new things to tell Tiana.

It wasn't like he'd expected to never come home again, he just hadn't thought about it much in New Orleans. He was too busy work, or playing with Louis and the band, or being married. He spent a considerably larger amount of time worrying about Charlotte making good on her promise to marry his brother when Asim got old enough. Since Asim was only 12 going on 13 this was considerably disturbing to Naveen… especially since Asim also seemed to like the idea. Naveen had basically been sending out letters to every prince he knew who wasn't his brother regaling them with stories of the wonderful (and in the case of the less well off Princes) and fabulously wealthy Miss Charlotte La Bouff.

Naveen slipped his arms up, resting his hands on Tiana's waist, pulling her close to him. "Do you think we're going to get the grandkid speech again?" he asked her, making his wife smile.

"Probably," Tiana said, leaning against Naveen with a smile. "At least the good thing about visiting your parents for a year is that my mama won't be asking when we're going to give her grandkids." It was becoming a running, is uncomfortable, joke in their family. Naveen knew Tiana was also wondering when they'd be able to have kids… he was too. He decided her wanted daughters, boys were too much trouble… although he wanted a boy first to be sure that someone else besides him could scare off any boys who would come around looking to date his beautiful daughters… though Naveen was getting ahead of himself on that. Tiana and he hadn't even had the child talk yet… not really.

As the crown prince it had been Naveen's responsibility to have a lot of heirs (something he was pretty sure he'd managed to avoid even now), but since his disinheritance that hadn't been a problem. He wasn't sure Tiana would like the idea of having to force out a couple of kids to fulfill a royal requirement. Naveen was also more than happy to live in New Orleans, play jazz, and wait tables. He was also very happy to do other things with his wife, but talking about such things was not appropriate to do in public.

"Yeah, but I'm sure we'll both be getting that talk while we're in my old home," Naveen said. He looked back at the water again. He wanted to get off this boat, but he wasn't sure how much he wanted to be home. It would be nice to see his parents and brother… but there were other things that would happen. He wasn't sure if he could prepare Tiana for the year to come. He'd had an initial reaction to her having been a waitress that wouldn't be far off… and may have even be nicer than what the reactions of other people, especially the court members would be.

They'd expected him to marry one of the noble daughters… or at least marry wealth. In their minds he'd married down. In his mind he was sure that he'd married up and that Tiana was too good for him. He'd been rather lazy, not a good son or prince. He slept around, a lot, and was horrible with Money. Then there was his beautiful wife who was so determined, such a hard worker, filled with dreams and ambition. Things had evened out now after so many years of marriage, but when they'd first been married he'd actually felt a little sorry for her because she was stuck with him.

Then there was the not so small problem of his past. The saying went that not even Jesus could win people in his home town. Lots of people like Naveen, but a lot of them would also not understand that he'd changed… he'd also have to understand that other people had changed as well. There were other problems as well that he'd been hoping didn't exist. He hadn't made the world's smartest decision in his youth. He'd been so bad that his parents had actually disowned him, the once crown prince. He'd told Tiana a lot about who he'd lived, and she guessed the rest, but that didn't mean that he wanted her to get all the details of all of his escapades… and with how small their country was that was a complete possibility.

Queen Ghada looked at her husband. "They should be here soon," she commented. She'd probably said it at least three times already, but she wasn't keeping count and she doubted her husband was either. King Rutilio Sabala (named for both his Spanish and Indian heritage) had been staring out the window for a long while now. Queen Ghada wasn't even sure if her husband had heard her speak at all. She stood and walked over to him, touching his should. That he didn't jump, but put his hand over hers made her realize how worried he was.

They both loved Tiana a lot. She was very lovely, smart, and hard working. She'd even managed to get their son to do what neither of them had ever been able to do, really care about something. The problem was that she wasn't at all what they'd expected when they'd sent Naveen off. Naveen had been the crown prince… still was for that matter. One of their big problems with Naveen is that he wouldn't even consider the idea of marriage. When they'd sent Naveen off with Lawrence it was with the idea that Naveen would actually work for his living for a while, and then they could bring him home. Not only had they not expected that Naveen would get married (They hadn't even realized that he'd been planning to marry for money until after they'd already met Tiana) but that he'd settled down, stop sleeping around, and actually work for a living.

Tiana was very good for their son, and they liked her very much… but Naveen iwas/i the crown prince, and they weren't getting any younger. Both the king and queen understood the sacrifices one would need to make for a kingdom, but they weren't sure if their son and his wife would understand.


End file.
